Frozen Assets: Cook for a Day, Eat for a Month

Praise for Frozen Assets

"Frozen Assets will prove to be the hands-down authority on once-a-month cooking."

—Susan R. Sands, publisher, Home Words Magazine

This book offers relief to those tired of eating restaurant fare or expensive, over-packaged convenience foods at the end of a hard day. Recommended…

—Library Journal

Contains recipe ideas, plus detailed instructions on how to get the maximum value from your food dollar, while also slashing meal preparation times. If you are into efficiency and want a guide to reorganizing your culinary life, this book is a must-have.

—Amazon.com

Finally, a realistic way to combine the cost-effectiveness of cooking from scratch with the convenience of quick and easy meals!

—Mary Hunt, editor & publisher, Cheapskate Monthly Newsletter

This cookbook is a necessity for anyone trying to save time and money while still providing a nutritious home-cooked meal.

—Home Cooking Magazine

This title is bound to be a favorite…because of its comprehensive scope and easygoing style.

—Christian Parenting Today

Hate to cook? Love to cook but don’t have the time? Want to have more free time on a daily basis? Then this is your book. These are easy and affordable recipes, kid-tested and family-approved. Eat well and have more time—what a combination!

—Marriage Magazine

This book belongs in every family’s kitchen! One of the best time- and money-savers a busy family can have.

—Gary Foreman, editor, The Dollar Stretcher

There are shopping lists and recipes for two-week and 30-day meal plans. There’s even a 10-day plan designed to eliminate cooking over the Christmas and New Year holidays. What a stress reliever!

—The Daily News, Washington

Finally a book that is so cooking-friendly ANYONE can follow the steps.

—Sherry Stacy, weekly radio host, Recipes for Life on KVSN

Whether you cook for one month or one week, I am sure everyone can reap benefit from this book.

—Keith C. Heirdorn, publisher, Living Gently Quarterly

"Frozen Assets will be at the top of my recommended books list!"

—Rebecca Stuck, advice columnist, Ask Miss Frugal

And she’s done an impressive job with this book, which outlines step-by-step the shopping, cooking and freezing processes that have worked so well.

—Copley News Service

Details a plan for cooking and freezing in quantity, with grocery lists, shopping lists, storage tips and dollar-stretching hints. The recipes are simple and straightforward, using everyday ingredients.

—Atlanta Journal

A perfect gift for a busy homemaker.

—The News-Herald Newspapers

Provides shopping lists and delicious recipes that will help you save time in the kitchen and money in the grocery store.

—The Oak Ridger, Tennessee

Taylor-Hough’s recipes are easy, with a minimum amount of ingredients and labor. And she presents the plan with an eye toward flexibility, allowing cooks to adapt the freeze-ahead plan to their own palates and checkbooks.

—Johnson City Press, Tennessee

Offers kid-tested recipes that are easy and affordable.

—The Oregonian

Cooks looking to save time without resorting to expensive convenience food will find this book helpful.

—Herald-Journal

[This] book outlines a step-by-step plan to one dedicated day in the kitchen that will provide breakfasts, lunches and dinners for the following month.

—Detroit News

A cookbook well worth a second look.

—The Pilot,

North Carolina Just about everyone will find the planning and organizational tips valuable.

—The Light Connection

The book is a one-stop resource for those looking to increase their time at the family table and decrease time spent in the kitchen and drivethrough lanes.

—The Cookbook Collectors’ Exchange

FROZEN ASSETS

DEBORAH TAYLOR-HOUGH

Copyright © 2002, 2009 by Deborah Taylor-Hough

Cover and internal design © 2009 by Sourcebooks, Inc.

Cover photo © Jupiter, Getty

Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.—From a Declaration of Principles Jointly Adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations

All brand names and product names used in this book are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names of their respective holders. Sourcebooks, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor in this book.

Published by Sourcebooks, Inc.

P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410

(630) 961-3900

Fax: (630) 961-2168

www.sourcebooks.com

Originally published in 2002 by Champion Press, Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Taylor-Hough, Deborah.

Frozen assets : cook for a day, eat for a month / by Deborah Taylor-Hough.

   p. cm.

Includes index.

 1. Cookery (Frozen foods) 2. Quick and easy cookery. I. Title.

TX828.T3999 2009

641.6’153--dc22

2009002537

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

VP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Also by Deborah Taylor-Hough

Frozen Assets Lite and Easy

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Stuart, Kelsey, Ian, and Shannon, who put up with endless new recipes and freezer experiments. You, my loving family, provided tireless support and encouragement, and you also allowed me the time to write, study, maintain Web pages, answer email, and cook.

Thank you!

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter One: The Attraction of Frozen Assets

Chapter Two: Help! My Freezer Is Too Small, and Other Frequently Asked Questions

Chapter Three: A Day in the Life of Frozen Assets

Chapter Four: The Ins and Outs of Meal Planning

Chapter Five: The Thirty-Day Meal Plan

Chapter Six: The Two-Week Meal Plan

Chapter Seven: The Ten-Day Holiday Meal Plan

Chapter Eight: More Main-Dish Dinner Recipes

Chapter Nine: Breakfasts, Lunches, Desserts, and Mixes

Chapter Ten: Money-Saving Tips and Ideas for Groceries

Appendix A: Foods that Don’t Freeze Well

Appendix B: Recipe Equivalents

Appendix C: Tips for Singles

Appendix D: Reducing Fat in Recipes

Appendix E: Creative Uses for Freezer Meals

Appendix F: Recommended Resources

Blank Calendar for Cooking Plans

Add Your Own Recipe Pages

Blank Shopping List

Recipe Index by Main Ingredient

About the Author

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My deepest appreciation to:

Dad—You gave me the computer, which ultimately led to writing this book. How can I thank you enough?

Brook N.—You believed in this project as much as I did. Thanks for your encouragement and editing.

Vicki M.—Thanks for suggesting a freezer-meal discussion and planting the seeds in my mind for this book.

Di J. and Chris S.—Your neighborliness (and the use of your large stockpots!) made much of this possible.

Lisa M., Evelyn S., Karen S., Catherine L., and Barb M.—Your friendship, prayers, and faith in me never wavered.

Leon F.—You always had a moment to share your experience and practical knowledge with a new writer.

Steven G.—From your example, I learned to run an effective email discussion group.

Deb V., Gloriamarie A., Lynn N., and Sue (in Scotland)—Your cooking wisdom, recipes, advice, and humor never failed to inspire me.

And to all the other participants on the OAMC discussion group, thank you for sending your tips, questions, comments, recipes, encouragement, and most of all, your friendship—without all of you, this book never would’ve been written. I wish I could mention each of you by name, but there’s not enough room on this page for the hundreds of personal acknowledgments it would require. (But I know who you are, and I appreciate every one of you!)

INTRODUCTION

I’ve been using bulk-cooking methods for five years. The book Once-a-Month Cooking, by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Lagerborg, revolutionized the way I feed my family. Although I found the recipes in Once-a-Month Cooking more expensive to prepare than my budget allowed, I adapted many of their techniques using my own recipes, and we’ve been saving money on groceries ever since. Also, not cooking a main dish from scratch every day allows me to save both time and effort. (My time is worth money, too!)

In February of 1997, an email discussion began between Vicki Madden and me on the subject of cooking for the freezer. Vicki had visited my frugal-living Web page and noticed that I enjoyed freezer-meal cooking. She had recently prepared a special Christmas gift for her boyfriend—a freezer full of frozen dinners. Vicki dropped me a note and asked if I’d like to share thoughts and experiences about freezer-meal cooking. Soon, we were exchanging tips, ideas, and favorite recipes. At the time, I was a stayat-home mother of three, and Vicki was a single working mother of one; the input from our divergent lifestyles and family sizes made for a fun and stimulating conversation.

On a whim, I asked other online friends if they’d be interested in joining our once-a-month cooking (OAMC) discussion. I was surprised when nearly everyone I contacted replied, Yes! I’d love to join a group like that! Thus began an idea with a mind of its own. Our little two-person conversation grew to include hundreds of people from all walks of life, family backgrounds, economic levels, and geographic locations. I now maintain a popular OAMC Web page that averages 4,000-plus visitors each month—this is obviously an idea with wide appeal.

Many of the tips, recipes, and comments throughout this cookbook come from the international group of men and women who have participated in my online OAMC mailing list. I wrote this book in response to the demand I’ve received for an affordable and easy-to-follow book on freezer meals for people who are new to the concept.

My desire is that this book will help fill that need.

—Debi

1

THE ATTRACTION OF FROZEN ASSETS

Following the premature birth of our first child, a group of friends from church filled our freezer with more than two weeks’ worth of frozen meals. Between frequent visits to the hospital nursery and the normal stresses of starting a new family, those meals in the freezer were a lifesaver.

During a later pregnancy, I wound up on bed rest for nearly four weeks. Once again, the ladies from church came to our aid with frozen dinners. One woman overwhelmed me when she showed up at my door laden with several shopping bags full of ready-to-cook frozen dinners—all from her personal stock of freezer meals.

The meals I received after my daughter’s premature birth were my introduction to the concept of frozen meals. Since then, I’ve applied this method to our regular family menus and have saved substantial time, effort, and money in the process. Some cookbooks refer to this as investment cooking, once-amonth cooking, bulk cooking, or cooking ahead. I call my method Frozen Assets, since dinner in the freezer can be like money in the bank.

Whether you’re a stay-at-home mom